Live: Rebekah Brooks Scandal Testimony

1919: Ending her evidence, Brooks reiterates that the most important thing is finding the truth about the allegations. Asks to come back to answer more questions when she can freely answer in more detail without her legal constraints.1914: Denies her close relationship with Prime Minister David Cameron had anything to do with trying to grease the wheels for the BSkyB takeover. Nor advising Cameron to hire ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson to be the Prime Minister’s top PR. Denies ever going for cosy horse rides with Cameron either. “There is a lot out there that just isn’t true. The truth is that he is a neighbour and friend. I deem the relationship to be wholly appropriate,” Brooks maintains.1908: Brooks accepts she has met Prime Minister David Cameron around 26 times. Says she regularly met Cameron’s predecessors Gordon Brown and Tony Blair around six times a year in Downing Street. “We come before this committee trying to explain what happened. We aspire daily to have a great company and your criticisms were greatly felt,” says Brooks.1900: Says she speaks to James and Rupert Murdoch much more often than she did when she was editor. “Every other day,” she says.1857: Brooks says she can’t answer who else deserves to be convicted of crimes – for legal reasons. However, “the newsroom of any newspaper is based on trust,” she says.1850: Brooks denies speaking to fellow editors in 2009 such as Paul Dacre — editor of the Daily Mail — asking them to downplay coverage of the phone-hacking story.1842: Brooks says Andy Coulson may have been editing the News of the World when Milly Dowler’s voicemail was hacked. She was away on holiday at the time. Farrelly “suspends his incredulity” that Brooks knew nothing about the phone-hacking.1839: Cross-examined on News International’s “rogue reporter” argument, MP Paul Farrelly says the Milly Dowler phone hacking demolishes what the company had been arguing. Glenn Mulcaire was already in jail by this time. “It wasn’t a myth, it was what everybody believed at the time,” says Brooks.1833: Brooks takes responsibility for the alleged voicemail hacking of Milly Dowler. “I don’t know anybody in their right mind who would sanction listening to Milly Dowler’s voicemail,” says Brooks. Says she first heard of allegation that Milly Dowler’s phone two weeks’ ago.1829: Says it’s “staggering to believe” that the News of the World hacked the murdered 13-year-old schoolgirl’s phone.1822: Brooks, who was editor of News of the World during at the time that 13-year-old Milly Dowler disappeared and her voicemail was allegedly hacked, admits being hands-on during such a sensitive story. “I will have been involved in the story over nine years,” she says.1818: Pleads ignorance about missing News International emails affecting the perjury trial in Scotland involving footballer-turned-politician Tommy Sheridan.1815: Says that what she meant by “there was more to come” when she addressed News of the World staff announcing the paper’s closure, Brooks says what she really meant was they had broken readers’ trust. Every single journalist made redundant will be offered a job across News Corporation, she says.1812: Says The Sun newspaper, which Brooks also edited after The News of the World, is “a clean ship”.1809: Asked if payments to police were widespread across all newspapers, Brooks says she herself has never paid a policeman or sanctioned police to be paid for information (such as cellphone numbers).1804: Brooks says “of course” she has regrets. The idea that Milly Dowler’s phone was hacked was as “abhorrent” to her as to anybody else.1801: Brooks says she doesn’t know who authorised Jonathan Rees to be rehired as a private investigator for the News of the World. Pleads ignorance that she knew what Jonathan Rees did, a claim which cross-examining MP Tom Watson describes as “incredible”.1757: Denies ever meeting Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who hacked people’s phones. Says she first heard Glenn Mulcaire’s name in 2006.1754: Admits she was aware that the News of the World used private detectives. Doesn’t remember authorising payments to private detectives.1751: Brooks denies James Murdoch’s statement that she sacked Tom Crone, the News of the World’s top lawyer.